It would be interesting to add cases / units / gal to the figures. With all the heavy discounting, the $ comparison could be distorted.

9:51 am December 4, 2008

Rick wrote :

Wal-Mart same store sales change is higher than the overall sales change. Given that Wal-Mart has opened more stores than closed, this seems illogical. Is it possible the two figures are transposed?

10:03 am December 4, 2008

Nate K wrote :

So what were Costco's sales figures ex-gasoline sales? You included that for Sams Club.

10:10 am December 4, 2008

Frank wrote :

Every time I see this chart I'm always fascinated to ponder that if you add up all the sales dollars from everyone but Wal-Mart, that you get a total that is still smaller than Wal-Mart itself.

12:34 pm December 4, 2008

Jim McCarney wrote :

Rick, you read it backwards.

This is a good basket of retailers. Frank brings up a good point, but WMT's sales make up 47.6% of this groups total sales in November. (The total sales for all these retailers was $42.345 Billion.)

If one uses a a weighted average approach, this group's total comp sales were down only 1.7%. Keep in mind that WMT contributes a positive 1.6% to the comps, using the same weighted average approach. As such, the group's comps were down 3.3% without WMT.

12:40 pm December 4, 2008

Jim McCarney wrote :

Given my previous post, I don't think these comps are as bad as I would have expected given the negative consumer sentiment, rising unemployment, etc. These comps are certainly not as abysmal as the -30% to -47% comps of the auto industry.

Keep in mind that this A to Z list is just a sample. More retailers will fail. There will be more vacancies in the malls and lifestyle centers and CMBS defaults. But these numbers give hope through a prizm of very negative one to two year expectations.

2:16 pm December 4, 2008

TheRetailDoctor wrote :

This is not as bad as feared. I feared 30%. visit most of the stores in negatives and you'll find a truly unremarkable experience. The only branding going on seems to be how low they can discount the merch. To get out of this slump in retail, retailers need to get back to basics, fire the rotten, lackluster employees, train new people who don't look down their noses to serving people on a sales floor, train them to sell and create a destination worthy of driving to .

2:58 pm December 4, 2008

BigAl wrote :

I own a few stores in a California Malls. I'm surprised these figures aren't lower. Probably because 2007 wasn't that great either. Fact is, nobody is spending money, and all they are buying is clearance. I wouldn't be surprised if we lose a few more giants such as Macy's, Target, GAP etc. The CEOs and Boards of those companies will cut and run if they think it's profitable. They can not survived 10-30% drops every month.

12:41 pm December 16, 2008

Bill Troy wrote :

I think that Macy's needs a stronger value proposition than it has today.

The Gap, and its component stores, have been circling the drain for years now, with YOY sales declines. I look for Old Navy, or more likely Banana Republic, to be divested or closed.

9:59 pm December 17, 2008

Patrick wrote :

Oh good! Instead of sending money to terrorist-training Saudi Arabia (via oil) we're now sending it to the communist, totalitarian Chinese (via most things we buy)!

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